On April 16, 2012 Kursk nuclear plant held a try-out for the third International kid creative project Nuclear Kids-2012. The casting was attended by children at the age of 11-16 years – citizens of Kurchatov - a city of nuclear experts of Kursk nuclear power plant.

The objectives of the project were to promote strengthening of friendly ties between children of employees of nuclear power plants both from Russia and foreign countries, develop new traditions of children’s creative activity, broaden children’s outlook, as well as promote nuclear power engineering among the younger generation. The result of joint work of children of different countries will be staging the musical, which opening night will take place on the leading concert halls of Russia and other countries.

The local shortlisting has already passed in the form of an open casting in the cities of nuclear power plants’ location, i.e. Krasnoyarsk, Krasnokamensk, Yekaterinburg, Angarsk, Novosibirsk, Voronezh, Volgodonsk, Saint-Petersburg, Moscow, Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod and Glazov. Kurchatov has become the penultimate point of the country map, where the young talents tried their forces, and Seversk will be the last point for the process termination.

In total, the casting, which took place at the Komsomolets youth centre, was attended by 29 children. All of them showed their prepared spots, which also included pop dance, and acrobatics, as well as dramatic reading and vocal art, both accompanied by a soundtrack, and without it. It was also necessary to show acting skills, except that the tasks were quite unexpected. For example, it was necessary to show an old lady passing a busy highway, turtle, pining away to death, cheerful frog, huge soaring bird, and even the Miss Universe at the deserved crown presentation.

One of the main requirements to the Nuclear Kids-2012 participants was knowledge of English, in which it was necessary to tell about themselves, as the project would involve children of nuclear power plants’ employees not only from Russia, but also from Bulgaria, Vietnam, India, Turkey, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Korea and Canada.

One of the memorable spots was demonstrated by Yulia Chaplygina, a young gymnast: her performance with a ribbon was greeted with applause and noted by the organizers. Yulia herself hoped that she had passed the casting successfully and was very proud that her mother worked at Kursk NPP, and was grateful to Rosatom Nuclear Energy State Corporation and Rosenergoatom Concern for the opportunity to participate in the project.

 The participants of Nuclear Kids-2011 Anastasia Lyamtseva and Alexey Zubkov, who had decided to try their luck this year too, pleased everybody by their performances. They considered that in spite of having already a sufficient experience, they would have to grow and grow in terms of creativity, and wished all the newcomers not to become embarrassed on the stage, be focused and not to “waste” that fervour, which helps to shine and believe in victory. “The most important is to gain new friends from all the parts of the world, it’s a priceless gift for the whole life!” said Nastya Lyamtseva.

Pavel Pronin, a project coordinator, defined the atmosphere of the casting in Kurchatov as follows:
“I’m already for the second time in your city, and I can say with certainty that the children you have – are just the nuclear power, in the best sense of this word! Well done, that is, grooved! I always say the same to the speakers - rock on the stage, do not be afraid of anything, everybody is your own.  It makes me glad that the eyes of the children, which in the majority are creative, strong and bound to win - glow. And one more positive side I noticed last year too - they adequately respond to criticism, make right conclusions, that is important in a creative process, because it ‘s a hard, exhausting work. Now I can’t name my favorite participants, but I have noted each one and wished everybody to meet in summer – at the project itself. Especially it’s nice to see familiar faces.”

Pavel Pronin also added that the scale project Nuclear Kids had no match: “It’s a great unifying force, this was not done yet by any serious state enterprise, but Rosatom could create such kind of a project.”

After summarizing, the winners of local try-outs are to be invited for the participation at the International children creative project Nuclear Kids-2012. An innovation of this year - absence of an “intermediate” – the final – casting in Moscow.

At present time, there are operated the power units No.3 and 4 of Kursk NPP. The units work at a capacity rated by the dispatch schedule. The power unit No.1 is under the scheduled midlife maintenance.  The power unit No.2 is under the scheduled maintenance.

The radiation background in the area of Kursk NPP and the adjacent territory corresponds to the level of power units’ normal operation and does not exceed the natural environmental values.

On line detailed data on the radiation environment near nuclear power plants in Russia and other nuclear facilities are provided on website russianatom.ru